Thursday, June 15, 2017

What happens when you combine a degree in psychology, a
career as a professor of social work and a lifetime love of mystery stories
that feature tough female protagonists? In the case of West Palm Beach writer
Miriam Auerbach, you get an award-winning series of satirical mystery novels
starring a Boca Babe turned Biker Babe named Harriet Horowitz.

Auerbach (pen name for Miriam Potocky) was born in Prague,
Czechoslovakia and immigrated to the United States when she was seven. She grew
up in Colorado and relocated to Boca Raton 20 years ago to take a position on
the faculty of Florida International University in Miami where she still works
as a professor of social work. Though
she was always an avid mystery reader, she never considered writing until she
had an unexpected encounter with Dirty Harry.

“One day, I was feeling depressed,” Auerbach recalls. “I
took to bed with a box of chocolates and turned on the TV. A Dirty Harry
marathon was playing, and I decided to watch. While I never really got the
character, I began to see him as the strong, silent archetype of the male hero,
and I thought that what the world needed was a female Dirty Harry.” In 2006,
Auerbach’s debut novel, Dirty Harriet,
hit bookstores, introducing readers to Harriet Horowitz, a character Auerbach
describes as “a man in a woman’s body.” The story centers around Harriet’s investigation
into the death of a migrant worker whose body was found in a tomato field. The
plot also gave Auerbach a vehicle to explore the issues of human trafficking
and migrant rights. Even though the novel was written as a mystery, it won the
Best First Series Romance award from RT Book Reviews.

Dirty Harriet was
followed in 2007 by a sequel, Dirty
Harriet Rides Again, which finds Harriet serving as “Best Human” at the wedding
of two same-sex friends. When three clergymen become murder victims, Harriet
goes on a search for the killer. The third book in the series, Dead in Boca, has Harriet investigating
the death of a wealthy developer bulldozed at his construction site. In the
latest installment in the Dirty Harriet’s saga, Boca Undercover, Harriet goes undercover to find out who is
murdering patients at a posh rehab center. Auerbach got the idea for the story
when she was doing consultant work in a residential substance abuse facility. “The
facility wasn’t anything like the one in the book,” she admits, but the story
allowed her to address the issue of addiction.

Auerbach describes her Dirty Harriet series as satirical
mysteries which she hopes will make the reader laugh but will serve a serious
purpose as well. “My books give an
over-the-top look at life in Boca that can easily translate to other wealthy
areas in Florida,” she says. “But they also address some serious social issues
and look at how they play out in affluent communities where there’s a dark side
to the bright, beautiful façade. I like to take topical issues and extrapolate
them to their extremes. This often leads me to outlandish places.”

The fifth Dirty Harriet book, tentatively titled Boca Blast-Off, is in its plotting
stage. The story will involve the death of a rocket scientist and the building of a
private rocket port in the Everglades. Auerbach hopes readers will come away
from her books feeling that “the world isn’t perfect, but there’s a little bit
each of us can do to make it a more fair and just place.”

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Most little girls want to grow up to be just like their
mommies. They try on their mothers’ shoes, play dress-up in their clothes, use
their make-up, or, in the case of Tarpon Springs writer Laura Kennedy, borrow
their typewriters. “I like to say I learned writing in the womb,” she says. Born
in Minneapolis, Kennedy knew as a small child that she was destined to become a
writer. “My mom was a romance writer,” she says. “She wrote two stories a month
for True Confessions magazine for 35 years to help support the family. As a
child, I thought all moms wrote.”

At age 22, now married
and a mom herself, Kennedy borrowed her mother’s typewriter and wrote her first
story. “I sent it to True Confessions and got $225 for it,” she recalls.
“That was a lot of money at the time.” Over the next 10 years, she “had babies
at a rapid rate” – three girls and a boy in four years – and wrote 30 stories,
selling 24. Then Kennedy moved to Florida to be near her mother and thought
she’d try her luck at writing a novel.

In 1980, with four teenagers at home, Kennedy wrote, and
later self-published, a novel titled See Mommy Run, the story of a mother who
runs away from her teenage daughter. “In the reviews, women either loved it or
hated it,” she says. In 2013, she found
a publisher for Double Take, her young adult novel reminiscent of Sunset
Boulevard. It tells the story of 16-year-old Brooke Bentley who befriends
Laura de France, a reclusive aging actress.
As Brooke falls under Laura’s spell, she finds herself losing control of
her life and being drawn into Laura’s fantasy. The inspiration for Double
Take was Beyond the Twelve-Mile Reef, a 1953 movie filmed in Tarpon Springs.
Laura de France was patterned after Sharon Randall, a 92-year-old actress and
the sister of Kennedy’s friend. “She grew up in Hollywood, and her mom raised
her to be in movies,” Kennedy explains. “She was signed by MGM when (Mickey)
Rooney and (Judy) Garland worked there.” Kirkus Reviews praised Double Take for
its “…realistic conversations…” and “…multiple
engaging plot twists…”. Fittingly, Kennedy dedicated the book “To my mother,
Marguerite McClain, who taught me how to write and is now giving writing
classes in heaven.”

Surf Shop Sisters,
the prequel to Double Take, was
released in 2016. The young adult novel follows Brooke in her junior year of
high school. “I love little Brooke,” Kennedy says. “She’s so real to me, I talk
about her as if she’s my granddaughter.” Surf
Shop Sisters won a Royal Palm Literary Award for Young Adult fiction.

Kennedy’s adult romance, The Breeding of Lilacs, was released by Melange Publishing as a
Satin Romance imprint in May 2016. The Breeding of Lilacs is an adult novel
that introduces Brooke as a
secondary character and centers around her mother’s affair with a Greek
man.The story follows Barbie Bentley, a woman with great kids, a gorgeous home,
loyal friends and a successful husband.
Yet she’s unhappy, longing for something to fill the emptiness in her heart. She returns to college where she meets a
handsome Greek pre-med student, Nick Diamandis.
Friendship morphs into an affair, and Barbie unwittingly becomes mixed
up in a crime scene where police suspect her of being involved. Kirkus Reviews praised the novel as "a fun romance with a serious
core"

Unfortunately,
sales have been on the sluggish side.
“There could be a lot of reasons,” Kennedy muses.“In retrospect, my editor Nancy Schumacher and
I feel the culprit is the title.When I
pull my novel up on Amazon it appears just above a guide on how to raise
lilacs.”With this in mind Kennedy and Schumacher
have decided on a new release. It will
be the same novel and same cover by prize-winning artist Caroline Andrus.
However, Kennedy is on a search for a new and intriguing title.

That’s where
you readers come in. “ Beginning this very moment, we are asking for your input,”
Kennedy says. “Cast your vote for one of our tentative titles and/or create one
yourself. For more about Barbie, you can look her up under the current title The
Breeding of Lilacs on Amazon, Smashwords, Lulu or Barnes & Noble. The
winners will receive an all paid trip to....
Just kidding. Actually, first,
second and third place winners will receive an autographed copy of the novel when
released with the new title plus a T-shirt bearing an imprint of the new cover. So fire up the old cerebellum or whatever
wiring we have in our brains and think.”

Here are the selections: Your input on proposed titles will count just
as much as an original suggestion. You
may vote for one of our titles AND suggest a title of your own.

Affairs, Fibs and
Felonies

Affairs and Fibs

Lies and Love Affairs OR

Your title

You may vote for
one of the suggested titles, explaining why you like it, or suggest a title of
your own. Please send your entry to: laurakennedybell@tampabay.rr.com.
The contest will begin on Thursday, June 1st and conclude at
midnight on Sunday, June 4th.

JACQUELINE

Based on a true story, "Jacqueline" is a tale of family, faith, unusual friendships, and the resiliency of the human spirit set against the backdrop of occupied Rennes in 1944. With the drama of fiction and the authenticity of personal history, "Jacqueline" is both a story about family and a family's story.

PROJECT JUNE BUG

Take an intimate peek behind the faculty room door and an unforgettable journey into the world of ADHD

About Me

I'm currently a columnist for The Island Reporter, a publication serving the South Gulf Beaches in St. Petersburg, Florida. My Florida Authors series features articles based on exclusive interviews with some of the state’s best writers. My “Pride & Joy” column
profiles individuals who give back to their communities through volunteerism.
I'm also the author of two novels."Project June Bug" is the story of a young teacher’s efforts to help a student with ADHD. It has received 12 awards, including Premier Book Awards “2009 Book of the Year.” My latest novel, "Jacqueline,"(published by Anaiah Press) is a middle grade historical based on an experience my dad, a WWII veteran, had while stationed in France shortly after D-day. Four of my stories have appeared in "Chicken Soup for the Soul" editions.
I live on Treasure Island (yes, it's as beautiful as it sounds), with my husband and two rather noisy macaws. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, walking on the beach, and visiting family in New Jersey, where I'm the proud "Grammy" of six beautiful grandchildren (with the pictures to prove it!)